1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to preparation methods of regular polymer patterns for the fabrication of small electronic and optical devices, and methods of fabricating a nano-patterned polymer film, characterized in that polymer patterns having nanometer sized line widths therebetween (which are difficult to realize by a photolithography or electron beam process) can be quickly and inexpensively fabricated at desired positions by use of a self-assembling process and a soft lithography process.
2. Related Art
Research on new fabrication processes for fine patterns having 100 nanometer or less scale, instead of a conventional photolithography process, has been a subject of much interest recently. Miniaturization and high integration of semiconductor devices result in decreasing manufacturing time and cost, and improve performance. However, when using a conventional semiconductor photolithography process, it is difficult to fabricate patterns having line widths of 100 nanometer or less, because of the limitation of the photolithographic resolution.
Therefore, electron beam lithography or X-ray lithography have been used to obtain such fine patterns. Although these methods result in finer line widths and higher resolution compared to photolithography, they require expensive equipment and long processing periods.
Further, a soft lithography process has been proposed as an alternative patterning method, in which a soft material such as polydimethylsiloxane is used as a mask to form the pattern. This has the advantages of inexpensive costs and short processing periods (see Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 37:550 (1998); Appl. Phys. Lett. 63:2002 (1993); J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124:1676 (2002); Langmuir 19:1963 (2003); Nano lett. 2:347 (2002); Langmuir 18:5314 (2002); Macromolecules 33:3042 (2000)).
However, for the soft lithography process, sizes and line widths of the resulting patterns are defined by the size and shape of an original master. To manufacture the original fine master, electron beam lithography has to be used.
To solve the above problems, formation methods of nano-patterns that use a self-assembling process of nanoparticles have been proposed. The self-assembling process is advantageous in terms of controllable sizes and intervals of the pattern according to the selection of the particles, low fabrication costs and short periods required for fabrication of the desired patterns. However, conventional methods of forming the nano-patterns have a problem in that desired patterns cannot be prepared at desired positions by only self-assembly (see Chem. Mater. 11:2322 (1999); Science 287:2240 (2000); Nature 414:293 (2001); Adv. Mater. 14:930 (2002); Chem. Commun. 982 (2003); Adv. Mater. 15:703 (2003); Langmuir 12:4033 (1996); Appl. Phys. Lett. 78:2273 (2001)).